ICG Value vs PCGS + NGC

I will bet you could find 1,000 posts on CT saying how useless price guides are. I am not sure what you call an index, but when the range is from 0.00025 to 0.8 it is useless IMO

 

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Overall I've not been impressed with IGC and copper. Generally speaking, you might as well ignore the grade on the holder and assume its overgraded (to top TPG standards) unless the coin is in-hand. Value as if raw. I would not buy on ebay unless there is a generous return policy and you are willing to deal with letdowns. I've found IGC to be worse than New-ANACS in the fact that while there are some nice coins residing in their holders, there are just not that many of them.

Might... yes, but more than likely it would need to be to the "right" person who would probably be buying the coin and not the slab. Just as with many older top TPG holders, most will have been picked over, so anything deserving to be in better plastic already will be.

Fine point and while someone can expect this, it this does not mean its going to happen. Buying sight unseen, even somewhere in that range (type dependent) is a good way to end up saddled with low-end and/or unsalable coins.

 

View them all as raw and it should help you immensely.

 

I would agree with this. About 8 years ago, I bought a 1995 W Silver Eagle (yes, the rare one) in an IGC holder that had it as a 70. I cracked it out just for curiosity and it came back as a PCGS 68. I sold it last year at a huge premium, but still, that is a fairly substantial difference in grade. I had only paid $500 for the coin in the IGC holder, and resold it for $2700.

 

I understand what you are saying...but I disagree. An experienced collected will know that there is an era of ICG slabs where they did an very good job grading. If they collector actually examines the coin in the slab, finds it correctly graded, and purchases it for their collection...there is no need to invest the money to have it reslabbed.

 

I think that more depends or your budget. If you are buying $100 or maybe $500 coins, I will bet you are correct. Most of those do not pay to play the breakout game. If you have a $1,000 coin in 63 and it could be a $10,000 in 64, I will bet there are a whole bunch who would take the plunge.

 

I completely agree with what you are saying...but that's why I specified that the coin was purchased for their personal collection. I really believe that most serious collectors are comfortable enough with their grading ability to grade their coins. If they felt the coin was properly graded in the ICG holder and wanted it for their collection (not to resell)...then I don't see a reason to get it reslabbed.

 

Not to resell. Just to play the registration game. I wonder how many Stuart Blay reslabbed.

 

I guess I didn't think about registries (since I think they are just a marketing ploy to get more coins slabbed and reslabbed). I tend to forget they even exist.

 

Just as a for-instance; There are presently 31 MS-67 1949-D cents by PCGS and 420 MS-66's. Since there are about 300 registry sets on PCGS, how many of those 66's do you think have been resubmitted? And, FWIW, I will bet several of those 67's are really lucky 66's.

 

Interesting comments.

I like the idea of ignoring the holder and judging the coin as if it were raw. I have crossed most ICG-graded coins at PCGS. I have no experience with moderns, though.
Lance.

 

All I know is whenever you send a ICG coin to pcgs to be regraded , the grade of the coin drops by one or two grades most of the time. Whenever you crack open a pcgs coin and send it to ICG for grading it grades higher than pcgs, check it out.

 

My only experience is a 1960 proof cent variety I purchased on e-bay in a PF69 cameo ICG slab for about $350. I cracked it out and sent it to PCGS and it came back PF68 cameo and I sold it on e-bay for just over $2,000. It was about 8 months later.

 

This is the exception, not the rule but it happens. I once had a bust half in an ICG holder that not only upgraded at PCGS, it also CAC'd.

 

There's no hard and fast rule. Just know that ANACS and ICG are regarded by most as second tier companies (or worse). As said, just judge each coin by its own merits and you'll do fine.

 

So, are you speaking of Dollars (perhaps your specialty) or all types of coins? In my experience ALL the TPGS get it right sometimes and I should like to see these leniently graded coins you speak of. What I hear at shows is ICG does comparable grading to the top two services but dealers don't like the fact that an ICG slab sells for less money no matter what the coin looks like.

I advise collectors who know how to grade for themselves to buy nice ICG and ANACS coins at a discount and walk away with a big grin.

 

Yep. I've done it. Call ICG, ask to speak directly with a grader. Have him look up the slab # and he can tell if the coin was graded in CO or in FL and sometimes who graded it. I'm pretty sure coins with a rectangular hologram are from CO days.

Yu have raised my curiosity as now I wish to find out if they know the actual month and year!

 

Do you know what strikes me about this thread? The OP has some serious and interesting questions. I think they could have all been answered with a one simple phone call!

I know first hand from the horse's mouth that everything in this thread (pro and con about each TPGS) has been/is regularly covered in a grading seminar given by one ICG grader. PCGS and NGC are tops, ICG and ANACS are seconds. For coins of the same grade, PCGS slabs bring more than NGC and more than ICG NO MATTER WHAT THE ACTUAL COIN LOOKS LIKE 97% of the time!
We can find over-graded, under-graded, and correctly graded coins in every TPGS holder. ICG was designating "detail" grades and slabbing all coins while NGC and PCGS were still using "body bags."

READ POST #19. Rim's knows how the game is played. As I posted somewhere today, it takes a fool to pay $$$ for grade rarity Lincoln cents in the 50's with no guarantee. The coins are all over the place - mostly raw waiting to be sent for grading to fleece another sucker. Same goes for common stamps from the 30's to 50's. Hundreds of common stamps (that you can buy in sheets for below face value) sells for $$ to $$$ when it is graded...and the
perfectionists keep it rolling.

In the end though, I'm thankful that these folks are around and enjoy the hobby as much as I do.

 

I wonder if Morgandude has had any similar experiences in the subsequent 4 years?